Amelia De Jesus, vice president of workforce solutions at the Wireless Infrastructure Association, suggested that providers leverage the rising generation’s interest in virtual gaming and augmented reality to encourage them to engage in a career that they care about, namely the infrastructure that enables the applications that they use. She suggested that VR can be used to train new employees, and conduct drone inspections of broadband lines.  

Fiber skillsets open a variety of other career opportunities for people entering the workforce, said Brian O’Hara, senior director of regulatory affairs at electric cooperative trade association NRECA. He said that providers can capitalize on this benefit to enhance their workforce efforts.  

Once employees are trained and practiced in fiber technology and deployment, these skills can be used in many ways, O’Hara said, claiming that this will encourage young adults to be more engaged in learning these skills. He pointed to support for telehealth platforms, precision agriculture systems, schools, and hospitals, among other careers.  

O’Hara recommended that providers educate the rising generation on the benefits of internet connection to provide them with a mission and purpose that can drive their career. He added that younger generations are environmentally conscious, which can be leveraged by providers by educating the next generation of workers on how broadband can reduce emissions, facilitate faster deployment of renewable energy, and provide a more efficient electricity grid.  

The key point is that the industry encourages excitement in college students and help them develop core skillsets that can be taken anywhere they want, concluded O’Hara.  

“States are depending on providers and operators to build out these networks,” added De Jesus, referring to the $42.5 billion set to be available to states for broadband builds in 2024 through the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program. For the first time in the history of the internet, providers have the money available to find and train employees to expand the workforce, she said. The BEAD program allows providers to use funds to deploy workforce development strategies. 

There is no nationally trusted technician certification, especially for the more than 1,200 smaller fiber providers in the country, said Mark Boxer, technical manager for OFS, a fiber optic designer, manufacturer and provider. He warned that newer workforce knowledge is inconsistent and that industry memory of procedure is fading as previously deeper trained generations move on. 

Experts have raised workforce shortages as a looming concern for coming BEAD-funded projects. Many have suggested various mechanisms to address the shortage, including hiring ex-convicts, developing apprenticeship programs, and engaging students at an earlier age.

Eileen Belastock, CEO of online education consulting firm Belastock Consulting, said that students do not learn well when they are looking at a screen. Children need more time off screen with tech free options to work on school projects, she said.  

“Screen time is not good for students,” she said. “It lends itself to bullying, inappropriate conduct. I also think students don’t learn well when they’re looking at a screen. I think they need more personalized, off screen, tech-free projects to work on.” 

Belastock suggested that educators have students conduct online research and engage in real life projects that will switch up their day and help them accomplish something new. 

Jason Amos, director of communications at the National School Boards Association, added that educators can add variety into classrooms by assigning passive, active, individual, and group activities. “Sitting on a laptop for hours and hours and hours or sitting in a lecture for that long is not a great way for kids to learn,” he said. He said active group participation remotely can help engage students and provide “tremendous opportunity” for a greater educational impact on the students. 

Amos added that it is a concern for how much time children are spending online and not interacting with their peers, especially because students are inclined to relax by playing video games or watching television. 

While Charles Severance, clinical professor of information at University of Michigan School of Information, agreed, he added that technology can be more versatile for students enrolled in online courses. Educating technology can be with students while they are outside or on a walk, he said. He urged for educators to find new systems that cater to student’s needs. 

Severance added that the biggest mistake in the country-wide push to move all classes in person is that it overlooks that some classes may be preferable online. Some classes do not need close interaction for students to be engaged in learning while others do, he said.  

Experts said in March that digital learning is here to stay following the COVID-19 pandemic, claiming that it “opened a door that can’t be closed again” in terms of technology’s role in education. 

Our Broadband Breakfast Live Online events take place on Wednesday at 12 Noon ET. Watch the event on Broadband Breakfast, or REGISTER HERE to join the conversation.

Wednesday, August 16, 2023 – Remote Education and Online Learning

The COVID-19 pandemic has turned our world upside down, but it also ushered in a transformative era of education, wherein online learning has emerged as a powerful alternative avenue for academic development. The remarkable progress in virtual reality, metaverse, and artificial intelligence has been steadily dismantling traditional barriers to remote education, such as accessibility, efficiency, and engagement. Where does online learning go from here? How does technology factor into this field? Are there any pitfalls students, educators, and parents should be cautious of, particularly concerning online risks for children?

Panelists

• Jason Amos, Director of Communications, National School Boards Association
• Eileen Belastock, CEO of Belastock Consulting
• Dr. Charles Severance, Clinical Professor of Information, University of Michigan School of Information
• Erik Langner, CEO, Information Equity Initiative
• Drew Clark (moderator), Editor and Publisher, Broadband Breakfast

Jason Amos has more than two decades of experience in education policy and communications, including several years as a congressional staffer. Currently, he is the Director of Communications for the National School Boards Association, a non-profit organization representing state associations of school boards and member school districts. NSBA’s purpose is to ensure that each student everywhere has access to excellent and equitable public education governed by high-performing school board leaders and supported by the community.

Eileen Belastock is the CEO of Belastock Consulting and an EdTech Leadership Specialist with the Mass. Office of EdTech. As a former K12 CTO, she has championed safety and security, encouraged student agency, and supported students with equitable access to their education. She is also a published writer, a national keynote presenter, and the 2020 top 100 Ed-Tech Influencer and 2022 Edtech Digest Leadership Award finalist.

Erik Langner is the CEO of Information Equity Initiative (IEI), an international nonprofit organization committed to ensuring everyone, regardless of geography or income, has access to high-quality, digital learning resources. IEI partners with government agencies, broadcasters, content producers, and funders to provide curated digital content to homes and facilities that lack broadband via a technology called “Datacasting.” Langner has worked in public broadcasting for two decades and was previously a corporate attorney in New York City and San Francisco, and worked at the United Nations in Geneva. Langner received his law degree from Northwestern University and his undergraduate degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Dr. Charles Severance is a Clinical Professor and teaches in the School of Information at the University of Michigan. He teaches over popular Massively Open Online Courses (MOOCs) including Python for Everybody – the most popular online programming course in the world on the Coursera, edX, and FutureLearn platforms. He is also a long-time advocate of open source educational technology and open educational resources to empower teachers. Previously he was the Executive Director of the Sakai Foundation and the Chief Architect of the Sakai Project. Dr. Severance has written several books including “Using the Google App Engine”, “Python for Informatics”, “High Performance Computing”, and “Sakai: Free as in Freedom.”

Drew Clark is CEO of Breakfast Media LLC. He has led the Broadband Breakfast community since 2008. An early proponent of better broadband, better lives, he initially founded the Broadband Census crowdsourcing campaign for broadband data. As Editor and Publisher, Clark presides over the leading media company advocating for higher-capacity internet everywhere through topical, timely and intelligent coverage. Clark also served as head of the Partnership for a Connected Illinois, a state broadband initiative.

As with all Broadband Breakfast Live Online events, the FREE webcasts will take place at 12 Noon ET on Wednesday.

SUBSCRIBE to the Broadband Breakfast YouTube channel. That way, you will be notified when events go live. Watch on YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.

See a complete list of upcoming and past Broadband Breakfast Live Online events.

The Schools, Health and Libraries Broadband Coalition and the Consortium for School Networking have asked for a year extension to June 30, 2024 for the first two funding rounds if the applicant received a decision on or after March 1, 2022, and a six-month extension to the aforementioned date for the third and latest round to implement money from the program intended to keep students connected to the internet when away from school. Their request asks to waive a section of the program rules that have set those current dates in stone.

According to the waiver request filed Wednesday, funding recipients have either received a decision letter “with a narrow amount of time” to use the funding prior to the current delivery dates or have yet to receive their application approval.

“Certain factors, such as the amount of time between when an applicant received its [decision or revised decision letter] and the service delivery date, combined with the time necessary for a recipient to order, receive, and distribute equipment and services once they are procured, could inhibit an ECF recipient from fully using their requested funding prior to the service delivery dates,” the waiver request said.

The duo added that “many applicants” wait to enter contracts for the equipment and services until they get funding approval. Those that put the cart before the horse may find themselves having to renegotiate certain terms, for example in the case where services or equipment prices increased by the time they get the funding notice, the request said, adding the anchor institutions have been up against “any remaining manufacturing and global supply chain issues” from the pandemic that are contributing to delays.

The organizations gave several examples of problems faced by the anchor institutions where they would not be able to provide the 12 months of services provided by the program, including size and availability increases of buses in Georgia adding additional deployment time and a California education office that had to coordinate with multiple programs that delayed deployment.

“In these cases, even an applicant that received its [funding letters] exactly twelve months prior to the current applicable service delivery date would not be able to provide a full twelve months of ECF-supported service,” the request said.

The waiver request said if the commission does not extend the delivery dates, applicants won’t be able to use all their award funding, which will mean the regulator will have spent less than the full amount appropriated by Congress.

“It would be a far better policy outcome for the Commission to extend the deadline and allow applicants to utilize the full amount of their awarded funding rather than opening a fourth application window to award the remaining dollars,” the duo said.

The FCC has allocated just over $6.6 billion of the $7.1 billion from the ECF program, as it has been making periodic funding decisions over the months.

Lack of digital access has short-term impacts on students’ grades and test scores, as well as compounding long-term effects on their ability to succeed in the workforce — and these impacts are particularly significant for students of color, explained Ji Soo Song, digital equity advisor for the U.S. Department of Education.

The pandemic left millions of students struggling to participate in remote classes, heightening the urgency of closing the digital divide.

“In Texas alone, it was 34 percent of students that did not have full internet access,” said Tonjia Grimble, founder and CEO of STEM It Up Sports. “That’s about 1.8 million students.”

Although schools have largely returned to in-person learning, the pandemic “opened a door that can’t be closed again” in terms of technology’s role in education, said Jennifer Berkner, education lead strategist at AT&T’s FirstNet.

This shift enables a new realm of learning opportunities, but it also presents challenges for both students and educators, panelists agreed.

“Affordability is still the main barrier to access,” said Francisco Gallegos, digital inclusion program manager for the Dallas Innovation Alliance.

For some schools, their actual physical infrastructure poses a problem. “You have schools that are built in concrete — you can’t get service through concrete,” Grimble said. “If their structure itself is not sound, then they’re not going to be able to get what you’re trying to get them… More of our states need to start thinking about improving that infrastructure.”

Song pointed to a September 2022 report, stemming from the Department of Education’s Digital Equity Education Roundtables initiative, that detailed existing barriers and potential solutions for increasing digital access. Among other recommendations, the report advised that community leaders should develop public trust by partnering with a broad range of local entities, including educational institutions, internet service providers, nonprofit organizations and more.

“The education sector needs to be in collaboration with the broadband sector as the digital equity plans are developed, because we can’t have siloed solutions,” Song said. Many states have already announced opportunities for community members to contribute to the digital equity planning process, he added.

In addition to the digital equity funding established by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, Song highlighted a variety of other government funding programs that can be layered to support digital learning. A “Dear Colleague” letter issued by the Office of Educational Technology in January provided guidance for maximizing this range of federal funding.

Private companies can also play a role in narrowing the digital divide, said Garner Duncan, vice president of sales for Ezee Fiber. Noting the longevity of fiber, Duncan advocated for service providers to focus on a longer-term return on investment in order to better support digital education infrastructure.

“We have returns that we have to make, but we need to be less rigid,” he said.

The chairwoman was fielding a comment from a mayor of a Texas city, who said that his jurisdiction has a program that lends out connectivity hubs – allowing others to connect to the device – in parts of the town for residents seeking internet. He asked whether that’s something that the FCC could fund.

“That’s a great idea,” said Rosenworcel to a packed breakout room including mayors from cities across the country.

Rosenworcel noted that the commission has been exploring the broadening of the E-Rate program, a high-cost program under the Universal Service Fund that subsidizes library and school broadband connectivity.

She said the commission may be able to expand the program to encompass funding for hotspot devices.

“Stay tuned,” she added, “because I think you’re onto something.”

Groups have, in the past, urged the E-Rate program to go beyond the schools and libraries and to households. An existing program, called the Emergency Connectivity Fund, helps students get connectivity outside of school.

Affordable Connectivity Program needs mayoral outreach

The chairwoman also touched on the need for mayors to help get the word out on the Affordable Connectivity Program, a $14.2 billion initiative that provides a broadband subsidy of up-to $30 per month to low-income families and up-to $75 for households on tribal lands.

The FCC said roughly 16 million Americans are on the program, but it suspects there are many more households that are eligible. That’s why it has set up four outreach programs to get the word out.

When asked about the longevity of the ACP, the chairwoman said there is still a lot of money leftover – some estimate over $10 billion – indicating a need to get the word out to fill the gaps.

But she noted that if it comes to it, the agency may need to go back to Congress and ask for its long-term survival because it’s “too important to stop.”

Open RAN technologies encouraged for BEAD funding

The small conference also included a cybersecurity official from the White House, who provided an overview of strategies for cities to protect themselves from attacks.

Anne Neuberger, a White House advisor for cybersecurity, said one recommendation for cities applying for federal broadband funding – specifically from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program – is to use that money toward open radio access network technologies.

Open RAN is a mobile wireless protocol that allows for the interoperability of devices, allowing telecommunications companies to forgo relying on proprietary technologies from companies deemed a threat to national security, such as Huawei and ZTE.

The NTIA is currently fielding comments on how it should craft a $1.5 billion program spawned by the Chips and Science Act that seeks to explore alternatives to wireless equipment.

Last month, the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada signed onto a commitment to “ensuring the security and resilience of our telecommunications networks, including by fostering a diverse supply chain and influencing the development of future telecommunications technologies such as 6G.

“Collectively, we recognize that open and interoperable architectures are one way of creating a more open, diverse and innovative market,” a collective statement said.

As the National Telecommunications and Information Administration prepares to disburse billions in funding from its Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment infrastructure program, questions have been raised about whether the nation has the workforce for the added infrastructure.

Jordon Sims, founder of Imperium Global Advisors,  said at the 40th Annual Institute on Telecommunications Policy and Regulation on Thursday that he expects the workforce to be the next great challenge because of the deficiency in the labor force and lack of skills training provided. More skills training programs would efficiently prepare applicants to enter the workforce, as well as expand the number of applicants eligible through the provided skills training.

He recommended the government take an active role to foster and retain a strong broadband workforce. To achieve this goal, Sims said skills training programs should obtain further funding to expand the skills they teach and the number of programs offered. New and potential broadband employees should have skills training and be able to work in broadband without much prior experience.

The Wireless Infrastructure Association and the Fiber Broadband Association have identified these issues and have been working on partnerships to address the labor concern.

On a Broadband Breakfast panel on Wednesday, experts discussed the need for states to use BEAD funding to build a skilled and diverse workforce.  An expected labor shortage is expected to occur and expanding skills training will help develop skills for potential applicants.

On a separate panel from the event, Nirali Patel, senior vice president of policy and advocacy at industry association USTelecom, said underrepresented students must also be prepared for jobs in technology through skills training provided through federal programs such as BEAD.

The metaverse refers to a platform of 3D virtual worlds where avatars, or virtual characters, meet as if they were in the real world. The concept has been toyed with by Facebook parent Meta and is being used as a test for the educational space.

“The metaverse is a world that is accessible to students and teachers across the globe that allows shared interactions without boundaries in a respectful optimistic way,” Simran Mulchandani, founder of education app Project Rangeet, said at Tuesday’s event.

Panelists stated that as the metaverse and education meet, researchers, educators, policymakers and digital designers should take the lead, so tech platforms do not dictate educational opportunities.

“We have to build classrooms first, not tech first,” said Mulchandani.

Rebecca Kantar, the head of education at Roblox – a video game platform that allows players to program games – added that as the metaverse is still emerging and being constructed, “we can be humble in our attempt to find the highest and best way to bring the metaverse” into the classroom for the best education for the future.

Anant Agarwal, a professor at MIT and chief open education officer for online learning platform edX, stated the technology of the metaverse has the potential to make “quality and deep education accessible to everybody everywhere.”

Not a replacement for real social experiences

Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, senior fellow of the global economy and development at the Center for Universal Education, said that while the metaverse brings potential to improve learning, it is not a complete replacement for the social experience a student has in the classroom.

“The metaverse can’t substitute for social interaction. It can supplement.”

Mulchandani noted the technology of the metaverse cannot replace the teacher, but rather can serve to solve challenges in the classroom.

The panel discussion, according to promotional material for the panel in advance of the session at the conference, “represented a new level of commitment based on the belief that operators have a responsibility to make the communities they serve even better.” The showcase panel was a way for the Fiber Broadband Association to highlight the work of providers, equipment vendors, consultants and government officials.

Companies are particularly focused on how to influence following generations for good. C-Spire is working with schools in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math education, and it provides programs for youth to learn coding and participate in coding challenges hosted by C-Spire.

Working with the state of Mississippi, fiber provider C-Spire made computer science education available to all K-12 students in the state and donated $1 million for teacher training. C-Spire also provided more than $3 million in scholarships for higher education.

GVTC Communications, a consultant to the telecom industry, works with local nonprofits, churches, schools, and businesses to donate full thanksgiving meals to families in need every year since 2012.

Listening to the needs of the community is essential to make an impact, agreed the panel. “When you have listening as your core value, you find out things that you can really make a difference in,” said Kevin Morgan, chief marketing officer at Clearfield, a provider of equipment for fiber builds.

As policy makers weigh the options for a structure for AI in the classroom, panelists agreed on its benefits for both teachers and students. Michelle Zhou, CEO of AI company Juji Inc., said AI technology in the classroom can be tools and applications like chatbots for real-time questions during class, and post-class questions at home for when the teacher is not available.

Lynda Martin, director of learning strategy for strategic solutions at learning company McGraw Hill, said AI provides the extra help students need, but sometimes are too shy to ask.

When a teacher has a high volume of students, it is difficult to effectively help and connect with each student individually, Martin said. AI gives the teacher crucial information to get to know the student on a more personal level as it transmits the student’s misconceptions and detects areas of need. AI can bring student concerns to the teacher and foster “individualized attention” she added.

Privacy and security concerns

Jeremy Roschelle from Digital Promise, an education non-profit, raise the privacy and security concerns in his cautious support of the idea. He noted that there needs to be more information about who has access to the data and what kinds of data should be used.

Beside bias and ethical issues that AI could pose, Roschelle cautioned about the potential harms AI could present, including misdetecting a child’s behavior, resulting in potential educational setbacks.

To utilize the technology and ensure education outcomes, Sharad Sundararajan, co-founder of learning company Merlyn Minds, touched on the need for AI training. As Merlyn Minds provides digital assistant technology to educators, he noted the company’s focus on training teachers and students on various forms of AI tech to enhance user experience.

There is an “appetite” from schools that are calling for this, said Sundararajan. As policy makers contemplate a strategic vision for AI in the classroom, he added that AI adoption in the classroom around the country will require algorithmic work, company partnerships, and government efforts for the best AI success.

“We are hearing from schools and district leaders that it’s not enough to make just broadband available and affordable, although those are critical steps,” said Ji Soo Song, broadband advisor at the U.S. Department of Education, said at an event hosted by trade group SIIA, formerly known as the Software and Information Industry Association. “We also have to make sure that we’re solving for the human barriers that often inhibit adoption.”

Song highlighted four “initial barriers” that students are facing. First, a lack of awareness and understanding of programs and resources. Second, signing up for programs is often confusing regarding eligibility requirements, application status, and installment. Third, there may be a lack of trust between communities and services. Fourth, a lack of digital literacy among students can prevent them from succeeding.

Song said he believes that with the Infrastructure, Investment and Jobs Act, states have an “incredible opportunity to address adoption barriers.”

Workforce shortages still a problem, but funding may help

Rosemary Lahasky, senior director for government affairs at Cengage, a maker of educational content, added that current data suggests that 16 million students lack access to a broadband connection. While this disparity in American homes remained, tech job posts nearly doubled in 2021, but the average number of applicants shrunk by 25 percent.

But panelists said they are hopeful that funding will address these shortages. “Almost every single agency that received funding…received either direct funding for workforce training or were given the flexibility to spend some of their money on workforce training,” said Lahasky of the IIJA, which carves out funding for workforce training.

This money is also, according to Lahasky, funding apprenticeship programs, which have been recommended by many as a solution to workforce shortages.

Student connectivity has been a long-held concern following the COVID-19 pandemic. Students themselves are stepping up to fight against the digital inequity in their schools as technology becomes increasingly essential for success. Texas students organized a panel to discuss internet access in education just last year.

The policy statement outlines four provisions in the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, including ones related to limiting the amount of data collected for children’s access to educational tools; restricting types of data collected and requiring reasons for why they are being collected; prohibiting ed tech companies from holding on to data for speculative purposes; and prohibiting the use of the data for targeted advertising purposes.

“Today’s statement underscores how the protections of the COPPA rule ensure children can do their schoolwork without having to surrender to commercial surveillance practices,” said FTC Chairwoman Lina Khan at an open meeting on Thursday.

Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter added Thursday that although COPPA provides the strongest data minimization rule in US law, it’s enforcement may not be as strong, saying that “this policy statement is timely and necessary.”

Slaughter, who was the acting FTC chairwoman before Khan was approved to lead the agency, said last year that the commission was taking an all-hands-on-deck approach to tackling privacy and data collection practices of ed tech companies, which has seen a boom in interest since the start of the pandemic.

Thursday’s statement comes after lawmakers have clamored for big technology companies to do more to prevent the unnecessary collection of children’s data online. It also comes after President Joe Biden said in his State of the Union address earlier this year that companies must be held accountable for the “national experiment they’re conducting on our children for profit.”

Lawmakers have already pushed legislation that would reform COPPA – originally published in 1998 to limit the amount of information that operators could collect from children without parental consent – to raise the age for online protections for children.

Thursday’s FTC statement also seeks to scrutinize unwarranted surveillance practices in education technology, such as geographic locating or data profiling. Khan added that though endless tracking and expansive use of data have become increasingly common practices, companies cannot extend these practices into schools.

Review is nothing new

“Today’s policy statement is nothing particularly new,” said Commissioner Noah Phillips, saying that the review started in July 2019.

Commissioner Christine Wilson, while supporting the statement, was also more withdrawn about its impact. “I am concerned that issuing policy statements gives the illusion of taking action, especially when these policy statements break no new ground.”

“While libraries understand and appreciate the need to gather data for assessment, to measure for impact, and promote accountability, we also ask that it’s not overburdening stakeholders with the intrusive and burdensome reporting requirements,” Frisque said at an event hosted by the Schools, Health, Libraries and Broadband Coalition, a nonprofit organization that aims to close the digital divide through the help of anchor institutions.

The ALA is concerned that it will be forced to breach privacy policy if it is required to report the effectiveness of money coming from the Infrastructure, Investment and Jobs Act. Because of this fear, the ALA has requested that the National Telecommunications and Information Administration ensure their reporting requirements don’t call for things like specific searches citizens may have used while on a federal computer funded by the IIJA, as that act would be unconstitutional.

The NTIA has fielded hundreds of comments since it released a request for input from the public about how it should implement the $42.5-billion purse allocated for broadband infrastructure under the IIJA.

One formal question, which drew Frisque’s response, was, “What types of data should NTIA require funding recipients to collect and maintain to facilitate assessment of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law programs’ impact, evaluate targets, promote accountability, and/or coordinate with other federal Start and state programs?”

The agency proposed Thursday to force service providers to submit applications through a bidding portal overseen by the Universal Service Administrative Company, which administers the E-rate program that provides broadband subsidies to schools and libraries. The current approach is that libraries and schools announce they are seeking services and service providers would apply directly to those institutions.

By giving USAC the ability to see service provider applications before they go to the institutions, the agency said this would eliminate at least some forms of abuse or fraud, including participants who may misrepresent their certification or circumvent competitive-bidding rules.

But John Windhausen, executive director of the Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition, said that while he applauds the effort to listen to consumer needs, the portal’s one-size-fits-all approach would ultimately burden E-rate applicants and service providers.

He also claimed that there is not enough evidence to show that a new portal is needed and that it “would add a lot more federal bureaucracy on a program that is running pretty well right now.

“You would have federal employees at USAC trying to make determinations about what’s…in the best interests of the schools or libraries,” said Windhausen, “And we don’t think they’re really qualified to do that.”

Windhausen also sees potential conflict between the new bidding portal and some state laws already governing E-rate bidding. In a scenario in which state law and FCC policy conflict, it is not clear which policy would take precedence.

The FCC said it has now committed $3.8 billion of the $7.17-billion program, which provides funding for schools and libraries to buy laptops, tablets, WiFi hotspots, modems, routers and connectivity to help students stay connected off school premises. The money comes as a new Covid-19 variant sweeps the nation again, putting face-to-face interactions at risk once again.

The agency also said Monday that it has allocated an additional $367 million in its first commitment and nearly $236 million in the second commitment.

The agency in October said that previous rounds had committed $2.63 billion from the fund since its launch in June.

The total amount committed to go to support 9,000 schools, 760 libraries, and 100 consortia for nearly 8.3 million connected devices and over 4.4 million broadband connections, the agency said in a Monday release.

The high school students in the Fort Bend Independent School District organized a panel conversation on internet access in education as part of Connected Nation’s national event titled “20 Years of Connecting the Nation,” and were able to host some high-profile guests in the world of telecommunications.

The November 17 panel included John Windhausen Jr., founder and executive director of the Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition, Chris Martinez, division director of information technology for the Harris County Public Library, Heather Gate, vice president of digital inclusion for Connected Nation, and Meredith Watassek, director of career and technical education for Fort Bend ISD.

Nine percent of residents in Harris County, where Houston is located, reports that they do not have a connected device at home and 18 percent say they do not have access to an internet connection. These gaps in access are the focus of the panelists’ digital equity efforts.

With Windhausen and Martinez present on the panel, a key point of discussion was the importance of helping libraries to act as anchor institutions – institutions which help enable universal broadband access.

Watassek pointed out that she has been helping oversee distance learning in Fort Bend ISD for six years, starting such a program to enable teachers to teach students in several of the district’s buildings without having to drive to each one, and has seen that with time and learned experience it is possible to work through distance learning logistical issues that school districts around the nation are currently facing.

On November 4, the No Home Left Offline initiative will launch to close the digital divide for 18 million American households that “have access to the Internet but can’t afford to connect,” according to a Monday press release.

The campaign will publish a detailed report with “crucial data insights into the broadband affordability gap and the opportunities that exist to close it,” use data to identify unconnected households and students, and launch broadband adoption and free apartment Wi-Fi programs in Washington D.C.

The non-profit and ISPs will share information confidentially to identify students without broadband at home and “enable states and school districts to purchase Internet service for families through sponsored service agreements,” the website said.

The initiative will run on five principles: identify student need, have ISPs create sponsored service offerings for school districts or other entities, set eligibility standards, minimize the amount of information necessary to sign up families, and protect privacy.

The non-profit said 82 percent of Washington D.C.’s total unconnected households – a total of just over 100,000 people – have access to the internet but can’t afford to connect.

“This ‘broadband affordability gap’ keeps 47 million Americans offline, is present in every state, and disproportionately impacts low-income, Black, and Latinx communities,” the release said. “Without high-speed Internet access at home, families in Washington DC can’t send their children to school, work remotely, or access healthcare, job training, the social safety net, or critical government services.”

Over 120 regional and national carriers have signed up for the initiative.

The initiative is another in a national effort to close the “homework gap.” The Federal Communications Commission is connected schools, libraries and students using money from the Emergency Connectivity Fund, which is subsidizing devices and connections. It has received $5 billion in requested funds in just round one.

The requests, which came from all 50 states plus the District of Columbia, American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands, are for 9.1 million connected devices and 5.4 million broadband connections.

The $7-billion program, whose first round closed August 13, provides funding for schools and libraries to buy laptops, tablets, Wi-Fi hotspots, modems, routers, and general connectivity is expected to help students stay connected at school and off school premises, addressing the “homework gap” made paramount during the pandemic.

The money is to be used for said services and devices purchased between July 1, 2021 and June 30, 2022. The program will open a second round for applications due to a spike in new coronavirus cases, which will run from September 28 to October 13.

“The Emergency Connectivity Fund is the single largest effort to bring connectivity and devices to students who lack them – and this robust response from applicants shows the tremendous need in our communities,” FCC acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said in a Wednesday press release.

“This funding is an important down payment in closing the Homework Gap so that all children, regardless of their circumstances or where they live, have access to the tools they need to succeed,” she added.

Congress authorized the program as part of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. The FCC has previously noted that the Emergency Broadband Benefit had proved out that there is demand for such a program and that the ECF would help fill the gap.

Breakdown by state

The FCC included a breakdown of the first-round requests by state. California was the top requester at roughly $812 million, followed by New York with $559 million, Texas with $496 million, Florida with $264 million, New Jersey with $225 million, Arizona with $200 million, Illinois at $197 million, Georgia $183 million, North Carolina with $149 million, Michigan with $108 million, Ohio with $103 million, and Puerto Rico with $102 million, and Washington rounding out the 9-digit requesters with $101 million.

The Connecting Minority Communities pilot program, announced in June, will address the lack of broadband access, connectivity and equity at historically Black colleges or universities, Tribal colleges or universities, and minority-serving institutions.

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration released a notice of funding opportunity for the program, established via the Consolidated Appropriations Act 2021, which will grant funds to eligible recipients to purchase broadband service or equipment, hire IT personnel, operate a minority business enterprise or a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization, and facilitate educational instruction, including remote instruction.

Eligible institutions include 501 Hispanic-serving institutions, 336 Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-serving institutions, 104 predominantly Black institutions, 102 historically Black colleges and universities, 66 Alaska native-serving institutions and native Hawaiian-serving institutions, 37 Tribal colleges and universities, and 32 native American-serving non-Tribal institutions.

The deadline to submit applications is December 1, 2021.

“Communities of color have faced systemic barriers to affordable broadband access since the beginning of the digital age,” said Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo in a press release.

“The investments we make as part of the Connecting Minority Communities Pilot Program will help communities that are struggling with access, adoption and connectivity, and will inform our path forward as we seek to finally close the digital divide across the country,” she added.

Registration for the event is available on Eventbrite. The session will also be available on Zoom.

Beginning in March of 2020, the Gigabit Libraries Network has hosted a series of conversations called the “Libraries in Recovery.”

The series is ambitious in its scope, and poses the question “What is a library if the building is closed?” Over the course of its more than 50 episodes, the the series has tackled myriad topics, ranging from equity, access, and inclusion to smart cities, social infrastructure, and the future of libraries.

The series recorded its first episode on March 26, 2020—only 15 days after the World Health Organization officially declared COVID-19 a pandemic. The episode discussed the importance of internet access during a time when many questions about the pandemic were still swirling, and many of the ramifications had yet to be felt—only a week prior had the first states begun issuing lockdowns and stay-at-home orders.

Broadband Breakfast also launched its webcast series, Broadband Breakfast Live Online, around the same time. The first session of the Broadband Breakfast series was on “Coronavirus and Education – Getting Ready for Online Education.”

Broadband Breakfast Live Online Archives provides links to all events in the Broadband Breakfast series.

Many of the Gigabit Libraries conversations and initiatives surrounding digital inclusion and the digital divide have only drifted into mainstream conversation in the wake of the pandemic.

During a time when many Americans had no idea how long they would have to remain indoors, “Libraries in Recovery” was discussing methods of boosting Wi-Fi signals to make internet available in library parking lots and the importance of remote access in anticipation of a surge in demand.

“With these enrollment numbers at this stage of the crisis, I think it’s clear that the need for the Emergency Broadband Benefit or something similar will outlast Covid-19,” Rosenworcel said at a discussion with the Benton Institute on Tuesday.

Over three million households have enrolled in the Federal Communications Commissions’ Emergency Broadband Benefit program since its launch last month. The temporary program provides a subsidy of up-to $50 per month—or $75 in tribal areas—to pay for internet service.

The EBB program will expire when the entirety of the $3.2-billion budget is used up or six months after the pandemic ends, whichever is sooner.

Rosenworcel’s comments come as experts call on Congress to recognize the need for long-term solutions to ensure students, who must complete virtual studies at home, are supplied with adequate connectivity.

“There’s a window of opportunity while the Emergency Broadband Benefit is available to design a permanent broadband benefit that will keep low-income folks connected once the program ends,” said Joi Chaney, executive director of the National Urban League’s Washington Bureau at a Connected Roundtable this month.

“Now is the time—while policymakers are acutely aware of the plight of the disconnected—to solve both rural and urban problems contributing to the digital divide.”

The $7-billion program provides funding for schools and libraries to buy laptops, tablets, WiFi hotspots, modems, routers and connectivity to help students stay connected when they’re off school premises.

Applicants will have until August 13 to apply for funding for the eligible technologies for the 2021-2022 school year. FCC communication staff said a target set for the review process turnaround time is 50 percent of applications will be reviewed within 60 days and 70 percent will be reviewed within 100 days.

In a press conference on Monday, senior FCC staff explained the commission’s decision to leave the process open-ended to adapt and size the issue appropriately, without the constraints of requirements.

When the pandemic hit, the problem of continuing education at home, where broadband can be insufficient for remote learning, emerged as a key issue for lawmakers to address.

In September 2020, Senator Ed Markey, D-Massachusetts, called upon the FCC to close the so-called “homework gap” through funding, and the ECF emerged as the product of those calls.

Congress authorized the program, the largest such effort to address the gap, as part of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021.

“Even before the coronavirus pandemic upended so much of day-to-day life, seven in ten teachers were assigning homework that required access to the internet,” FCC Acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said in a press release Tuesday.

“But data from this agency demonstrates that one in three households do not subscribe to broadband,” Rosenworcel added. “Where those numbers overlap is the Homework Gap.”

Both the Emergency Broadband Benefit and the ECF programs are working toward helping the estimated 17 million children across the US who don’t have access to broadband. The senior FCC staff explained the complementariness of the EBB and ECF. They explained the EBB proved there was a demand, and ECF was going to fill the gap.

Edna Martinson is the co-founder of Boddle Learning, which provides an interactive and individualized gaming platform that allows teachers to take action from insights on student progress with real-time data.

Martinson noted at a symposium on June 8 that the difference is in Boddle’s move away from the traditional one-size-fits-all model that is leaving children and communities behind on education. When Boddle received a grant from AT&T in early 2020, it saw a subsequent surge in growth during the pandemic.

But that formula relies on technology that isn’t always accessible, panelists said.

The Covid-19 pandemic has proved that technology and broadband are crucial to continuing education. A large learning gap was created because areas of the country don’t have or have unreliable access to broadband.

Addi Mavengere, CEO of the Learning Factory, noted that 75 percent of students in Africa do not have access to technology, and 53 percent of mainland Africa lives in rural areas.

A study, commissioned by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, found that nearly 50 percent of 470 dropouts surveyed, list boredom as the main reason they left. Programs such as Boddle are combatting this problem with innovative technology to keep students engaged, Martinson said, adding avatar-creation is one-way Boddle is maintaining student attention.

Another educational platform, Freckle, ran into this problem when 9-year old Maya and her teacher reached out to the company because Maya said there were no hairstyle options for black girls. The company quickly corrected this problem.

“You need to make sure that all students feel welcomed,” Maya’s teacher said, “and it seems like something small, but if children are using a program and it’s mandatory to use that program, they should be able to see themselves represented.”

Soon after the beginning of the pandemic, the group has been hosting sessions around the theme of “what is a library when a physical building itself is closed.”

Friday’s session focused on Elon Musk’s Starlink system of 60 low earth orbit satellites offering connectivity. 

See also “Broadband Breakfast Live Online on Wednesday, August 26, 2020 — Champions of Broadband: Don Means,” founder of the Gigabit Libraries Network

Individuals and institutions receiving early access to Starlink are finding that the service can perform at higher speeds than traditional satellite services because of a shorter round trip from earth to satellite. And the service priced the same, whether the customer is in south Chicago or inner Mongolia.

The Torréon Community Navajo Library in New Mexico was an early beta customer. Participants in the webinar said that Starlink may do for rural broadband what libraries did for early internet access in the 1990s.

The goal is to connect everybody to the internet

The other focus of the Gig Libraries meeting was around the role libraries play in promoting “smart cities.” Libraries, panelists said, are among the last institutions that enjoy widespread public trust.

In Chattanooga, Tennessee, the Smart City Collaboration has used the resources of its technology corridor to help close the homework gap. Some families are receiving 100 gigabits per second (Gbps) for free for the next 10 years.

Debra Socia, current CEO of the Enterprise Center and former CEO of Next Century Cities, discussed a $150 million technology grant involving data analytics. 

“How we collect information and what we do with it is important” says Debra Socia. The lack of transparency and trust is a main concern for communities, many even worry that the technology could be used to spy on them. 

Libraries don’t want to jeopardize their trusted position in the community by failing to disclose the way they use data about individual library patrons.

As public algorithms become more apparent in our everyday life, libraries in particular must assume greater responsibility to inform the public on how technology and data use impacts people, panelists said.

“I don’t think libraries should be in the role of marketing, but rather [should] inform the public whether a decision that is being made with the use of technology is right for them,” said Ellen Goodman, law professor at Rutgers University.

Libraries serve a public function when they share information, including information about audit procedures, policy developments and workshops around the real-world implications of technology usage.

At the onset of the pandemic, she pledged to use her influence at the agency to fight to increase the flexibility of the E-Rate program, saying “every option needs to be on the table.”

When the American Rescue Plan Act established the Emergency Connectivity Fund in March, a $7 billion program to connect students and library patrons to the Internet at off-campus locations, Rosenworcel had an opportunity to follow through on those promises.

She could have seized the moment to steer the program in the direction of allowing schools and libraries to build, own, and operate their own school and community networks (what the federal government refers to as self-provisioned networks). Many schools serving areas with poorly connected students already do this, but without much help from the E-rate program.

But when the rules on how to spend the money were finalized on May 10th, the FCC’s Report and Order declared that schools and libraries could not use Connectivity Funds to build self-provisioned networks, but instead could only use the funds to purchase Wi-Fi hotspots, modems, routers, and connected devices, such as laptop computers and tablets.

The one exception in which schools and libraries can use Connectivity Funds to build self-provisioned networks is in “areas where no service is available for purchase,” based on data self-reported by private ISPs.

The Report and Order indicates the agency was not convinced allowing schools and libraries to build their own networks with the funds would be consistent with the goals Congress intended for the program, as the language in the Rescue Plan states that the Connectivity Fund is limited to the purchase of eligible equipment or advanced telecommunications and information services, as defined here.

What’s striking about that FCC interpretation is that it is completely at odds with what the Biden Administration has been espousing in the American Jobs Plan: that building publicly-owned community networks and investing in future-proof infrastructure are a crucial part of closing the digital divide. This FCC decision is a recipe for cutting students off from broadband Internet access as soon as Congressional appropriations run out rather than using those funds for solutions that will operate sustainably into the future.

Not Trying to Rock the Big Telco Boat

When the Connectivity Fund was first introduced, smaller Internet Service Providers, public interest groups, and education advocates petitioned the FCC to allow for the federal funds headed to schools and libraries to be eligible for use to build school and community networks.

The Schools, Health and Libraries Broadband Coalition; the American Library Association; and the Consortium for School Networking all found that self-provisioned networks are the most cost-effective way to permanently close the homework gap. They advocated for giving schools and libraries the most flexibility to spend these dollars and maintained that local administrators are best positioned to decide how to bridge gaps in connectivity.

Instead, the Connectivity Fund is now set to give limited remote learning funds to the same corporate ISPs that gave rise to the homework gap in the first place. The program gives a strong preference to funding hotspots provided by existing wireless mobile service providers, mainly AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile. (In fact, AT&T, Verizon, and CenturyLink all lobbied the agency to disqualify [pdf] self-provisioning from being eligible for ECF support.)

The agency has also announced that the program will be forward-looking; therefore, lower priority will be placed on reimbursing schools and libraries for equipment purchased over the past year to expand existing networks or build new networks to serve students and library patrons.

E-Rate is a program that passed with support from big telcos because these monopoly providers have always been a prime beneficiary of the program. Any provision allowing ECF funds to be used on self-provisioned networks would eat away at what has been a guaranteed government income stream for these private ISPs.

There has been an open petition with the FCC, since before Ajit Pai was chairman, to permanently allow schools and libraries to be able to use E-Rate funds to build their own networks where it is cost-effective. If Rosenworcel wanted to permanently enact this change, and allow for schools and libraries to deploy more innovative, long-term and cost-effective technologies, she could have pushed to close that petition, and call for commissioners to vote on the issue. But with the FCC evenly split between Democratic and Republican Commissioners, it seems Rosenworcel is making a calculated decision to not rock the boat, challenging what has long been the status quo in a regulator that is frequently accused of having a revolving door with the industry it is supposed to regulate.

Self-Provisioned Networks Connecting Students Across the Country

At the onset of the pandemic, many local school administrators across the country scrambled to connect students to the Internet. In the process, those efforts suggested that self-provisioned broadband networks are a reliable and cost-effective way to connect students at home.

In Salt Lake Valley, Utah, technology supervisor for the Murray City School District, Jason Eyre, pioneered the construction of a private LTE network using CBRS spectrum the district obtained in 2019. Within four months (between January and April 2021), Eyre had engineered a network using approximately $77,000 of CARES Act funding to cover a 3-mile square home to many low-income students in the district. (District analysis showed that 13 percent of students did not have access to service from any existing ISPs.)

In one of SHLB’s ex parte filings to the FCC, Eyre explained that the private LTE network was a much more cost-effective solution than using hotspots from traditional wireless providers. The money he would have spent to purchase hotspots, which require a monthly service fee of $40/month, was enough money instead to build the private LTE network which will last for at least five years.

Similarly, a school district in California’s Central Valley, Lindsay Unified School District, found that deploying a community network in partnership with local government was by far the most cost-effective solution to get all students online.

LUSD initially considered using hotspots, but quickly discovered that recurring monthly subscription fees would cost the district almost $1 million annually to connect 2,000 students. Additionally, the signal strength hotspots provided were too irregular to support successful remote learning in the rural, agricultural community.

The district opted for an alternative solution in 2015 to “connect 75 percent of student homes using a meshed network of Wi-Fi access points mounted on schools, city property, and, as needed, student homes,” report Michael Calabrese and Amir Nasr for New America. The feasibility of the community network was demonstrated and LUSD moved to extend the network to more students by installing access points on all school buildings.

Finally, three years ago in Boulder Valley, Colorado, Andrew Moore (Chief Information Officer of the Boulder Valley School District) launched a wireless network to connect students at home with the help of a local ISP. “After the pandemic began last March, the BVSD expanded its TV White Space pilot program, called ConnectME, extending it beyond a few schools in Lafayette and Boulder to every single school in the district,” reports New America. BVSD was able to construct and expand the network without any E-Rate or ECF support.

The New America report documents still more examples of school districts using innovative solutions to connect students at home, including efforts in San Jose, California; Council Bluffs, Iowa; Maryland; and Texas.

The Hotspot Experience

Even if hotspots were a more cost-effective solution to get students online, many school administrators have reported that the devices often fail to work in more rural and impoverished communities.

Though there are benefits to using hotspots, such as the mobility they allow for and the relative ease of the distribution process, there are many drawbacks to relying on the devices.

Hotspots operate over mobile LTE networks and the reliability of the connection, along with the download and upload speeds attainable, can vary greatly depending on the user’s distance from a cell tower, the number of people using the network, and an area’s geography, reports DigitalBridgeK-12.

In the experience of the Southern Oregon Education Services District – which serves a total of 53,000 students, in 13 school districts, living across 10,000 square miles – Coree Kelly, SOESD’s chief information officer told us, “hotspots are only working well in the same areas where you already have a wired-up connection. If you don’t have a wired-up connection available in the area, then the hotspots don’t operate well either.”

According to Kelly, each one of the 13 districts tried to use hotspots (mostly provided by Verizon and U.S. Cellular) to connect students at home, and each one experienced a degree of failure.

“We tried trading them around, we tried other carriers’ hotspots,” Kelly explained. “Every single district that tried hotspots had some percentage of failure, ranging anywhere from 100 percent failure in some of our smaller school districts [located in the mountains of Southern Oregon] to around 10 percent,” adding that “it seemed like it was really impoverished areas that the hotspots didn’t work.”

This FCC order may allow districts to build networks in those areas, but individuals in the region may have difficulty proving to the Commission’s satisfaction that there is no private solution, as most areas where the hotspots failed were reported to be served with DSL connections by Verizon on the National Broadband Map.

Kelly spent the first week of May, alongside SHLB’s executive director John Windenhausen, educating FCC Commissioners on the vast shortcomings of hotspots and urging them to give schools and libraries flexibility to use anticipated ECF funds. Kelly was initially hopeful that the school districts SOESD serves would be able to utilize the funds to build out their own networks and was deeply disappointed with the FCC’s final ruling.

“It looks like it’s going to be more of the same, not open to innovation,” Kelly said, referencing the final language of the ECF Report and Order. “Really this shouldn’t be a monetary conversation for the vendors or for the ISPs, this should be an equity conversation, and everybody should be receiving the same Internet. That’s definitely not the way it goes now, because higher poverty areas get the worst connections, and nobody is ever looking to them to upgrade.”

“We’re in education. We don’t care about profit or loss. We just want to give our children a quality education,” he added.

Kelly thinks it’s time the FCC took a different approach. “We need to do something drastically different. We’ve spent a long time up to this point, and still, with all of the subsidies and programs…we still don’t have the connections out there,” he said.

In the meantime, between this FCC ruling and the Treasury rules that discourage cities from building effective networks in areas that already have cable service, the Biden Administration has decided on its own terms to narrowly interpret statutes in ways that benefit the cable lobbyists and are at odds with their own statements regarding structural solutions to the America’s broadband woes.

Editor’s Note: This piece was authored by Jericho Casper with the Institute for Local Self Reliance’s Community Broadband Network Initiative. Originally published on MuniNetworks.org, the piece is part of a collaborative reporting effort between Broadband Breakfast and the Community Broadband Networks program at ILSR.

“STEM curriculum and hands-on educational opportunities are incredibly important for students of today to be career- and college-ready, and we’re proud to partner with Utah Valley University and the Alpine School District to support this new marquee technology,” said William Marks, community development regional manager at Facebook, told the Daily Herald.

During a recent school day at Forbes Elementary in American Fork, students and teachers felt like it was Christmas morning when a trailer full of donated science, technology, engineering and math teaching tools, games, and books were unloaded as part of a new K-6 STEM curriculum created and funded by Facebook, UVU, Utah State University and the local school district.

Kate Elliott, the head UVU student assistant, said “The kids are really excited, so it’s really fun to watch them. It has been fun to teach something they don’t always get to do.”

Indeed, the elementary classroom becomes the birthplace of imagination and ingenuity and must be safeguarded and supported in order to create the leaders of tomorrow.

Called the SEEdPOD project, coming from Utah’s Science and Engineering Education (SEEd) standards that combine principles of engineering with science subjects, lesson plans and materials are stored in trailers called “pods.”

Teachers in the Provo and Alpine school districts review the lessons, with funding from UVU and Facebook. USU provides research support.

Other SEEdPOD trailers are scheduled to be delivered to elementary schools in Blanding, Utah, and other communities in Utah County here.

Indeed, through the partnership, awareness is spreading about the education needs of teaching in three-dimensional ways. This is especially so given that technology has changed from the traditional school classroom setting from prior to the onside of the COVID-19 pre-pandemic.

Training teachers to use Utah’s new SEEd standards has been a challenge due to COVID-19, said Krista Ruggles of the UVU School of Education. The SEEdPOD project aims to close the gaps between education and training with technology.

CoSN collected data from thirteen school distracts representing rural, suburban, and urban communities, and approximately 750,000 K-12 students. The authors of the study divided their findings into four topics.

Broadband video connections as part of distance learning

The first such topic pertained to the ability of students to utilize video components of distance learning. Researchers noted that both asynchronous and synchronous videos were a mainstay in distance learning despite the high upload and download speed requirements necessary to sustain such a service.

According to the study, more than 85 percent of network traffic related to remote learning is just for video.

The study also noted that the use of video-intensive content is expected to continue to increase, and with it, the demand for faster, more reliable, broadband.

It can be demanding enough to have a single student both downloading and uploading video content at once, but researchers found that 70 percent of students live in households with at least one other student. Without sufficient download and upload speeds, students were unable to engage in distance learning uninterrupted.

Connectivity habits

The second topic reflected student behavior and habits when using broadband—namely, that students are highly mobile and rely on Wi-Fi to access distance learning services. Of the students surveyed, 92 percent used Wi-Fi rather than a wired connection. Now that students are no longer required to attend school in person, researchers observed that many would engage in class from public spaces, a classmate’s home, or even from a different city or state.

The study also noted that students are typically not using Wi-Fi on a single device, and that in addition to a laptop or desktop computer, many also had smartphones and tablets that competed for bandwidth.

Compounding the issue is that many of the students surveyed possessed services that could provide sufficient broadband speeds, but they were using outdated hardware that weakened their Wi-Fi connections. Additional factors such as router location and house construction also presented obstacles to Wi-Fi use.

Addressing underserved communities

The third category were issues related to community distance learning in underserved communities, particularly in rural areas. The Federal Communications Commission and legislators have recognized that, for some, the rural broadband experience can be similar to the broadband experience in the inner city.

The study indicated that even students living in areas about the average socioeconomic status did not automatically have access to sufficient broadband for distance learning.

Distance learning experience by quality of devices

The final topic juxtaposed students’ distance learning experience to the quality of the devices they had access to. Unsurprisingly, students with older devices or devices with limited memory or processing power often had a worse experience than students with newer and/or more powerful devices.

Processing speed, memory, CPU utilization, application limits, the quality of Wi-Fi antennae, and Wi-Fi access frequencies were all metrics that were considered when evaluating devices. The worse those items were, the worse the experience generally was for the students surveyed.

Recommended solutions

The researchers made several recommendations to address these topics. Some of the recommendations were about taking advantage of existing programs, like the Emergency Connectivity Fund, and leveraging state and federal funds to provide better services for students. Some of the services exampled were Wi-Fi hotspots on buses, at stadiums, and other public areas that students could access to do their classwork.

Other solutions involved working with ISPs to ensure that community needs are addressed in an affordable manner. One such example was ISPs providing free satellite internet to households unable to afford a broadband subscription. Researchers also suggested that local school districts establish CBRS and LTE broadband services to affordably transmit data packages to students.

The study also provided a list of criteria that school districts should consider if they decide to purchase and loan devices to students. They included obvious things such as Wi-Fi capability, but also included items that can be easily overlooked, such as an integrated webcam/microphone and a headphone port.

Even as the pandemic appears to be drawing to a close, distance learning will likely continue to play a significant role in how students learn for the foreseeable future.

If the regulations are adopted by the FCC and their meeting in May, the fund would provide $7.17 billion to reimburse schools and libraries for infrastructure and devices purchased during the COVID-19 pandemic in order to promote distance learning. Everything from laptops and tablets to Wi-Fi hotspots would qualify for reimbursements.

The fund was designed to address Rosenworcel’s longtime goal of closing the “homework gap”—a term she coined in 2015.

“During the pandemic, our classrooms went virtual and what was already an unconscionable homework gap has become a learning chasm with even more devastating consequences,” Rosenworcel said in a press release from the FCC.

She pointed out that even as some areas were able to address the needs of students, others began to fall behind as the pandemic dragged on, “Even as the pandemic ebbs in some areas and surges in others, millions of students are still engaged in remote learning, and there is no time to lose.

The Emergency Connectivity Fund is one of two programs designed to address the problems exacerbated by the pandemic that the FCC planned to roll out within the past several months. The other program is the Emergency Broadband Benefit that was designed to help secure high-speed, affordable, broadband to families.

Both of these programs will be featured in the Broadband Breakfast Live Online event on Wednesday, May 5, 2021, 12 Noon ET — “Ask Us About the Emergency Broadband Benefit and Emergency Connectivity Fund.”

The Emergency Broadband Benefit program will subsidize broadband plans from qualified internet service providers, providing $50 a month for households in need, and $75 for households on Tribal lands.

Rosenworcel emphasized that the FCC has to get the fund established quickly so it can begin to relieve the financial pressure that many school districts are feeling, “Congress has entrusted the Commission with the vital task of providing relief to our students, teachers, school staff, and library patrons – and has mandated that we do so quickly.”

Speaking Spanish is a huge plus for digital navigators in Salt Lake City, Utah, for example, as many of its focused neighborhoods needing to be connected to broadband speak the language,  said Shauna McNiven Edson, digital inclusion coordinator at Salt Lake City Public Library.

Edson and other panelists spoke last Wednesday at the 2021 Net Inclusion Webinar Series hosted by the National Digital Inclusion Alliance, a digital inclusion advocacy group on what skills are needed to become a digital navigator.

At the Salt Lake City Public Library, progress is there but challenges persist for digital inclusion and navigation. Edson said there were about 450 participants in its library program’s group for digital inclusion. However, only about 5 percent of participants, or 22 people, have adequate broadband at home. Seventy-five percent of members said they needed help finding a computer or internet-enabled deice, and 10 percent of its 450 members have contacted the library’s support staff for It issues.

Digital navigators are crucial because they connect community members with the skills and resources they need to become digitally literate and help them get adequate broadband. Navigators can be volunteers or cross-trained staff who already work in social service agencies, libraries, health, and more who offer remote and socially distant in-person guidance. 

Compared to the rest of the country, Salt Lake City is highly connected, said Edson. Every community has a unique demographic make-up, and if the communities who need access to broadband mostly speak Spanish or English or even Mandarin, there should be community anchors with highly trained digital navigators to help the underconnected.

Andrew Au, director of operations at Digital Charlotte, said digital inclusion should include adult education. Every library and public institution that offers internet services should have digital navigators available and onsite to guide individuals in their communities and offer continuing education resources to keep digital skills literacy up, he said.

The Emergency Connectivity Fund is part of President Joe Biden’s $1.9-trillion American Rescue Plan signed into law in March 2021.

It’s “the nation’s largest ever broadband affordability program,” Rosenworcel said Tuesday on a virtual panel hosted by Allvanza, an advocacy group for Latinxs and underserved communities within the technology, telecommunications and innovation industries; the Multicultural Media Telecom and Internet Council (MMTC); and the Asian Pacific American Advocate group (OCA).

It’s “designed to make sure we get every household in this country connected to high-speed Internet service because this pandemic has proven like nothing before,” she added.

The FCC made a sign-up portal on its website to determine interest in the program, and over 9,000 institutions have signed up to date, Rosenworcel said, adding she hopes the policies for the EBB can address the homework gap by extending internet subsidies normally reserved for schools and libraries to households.

Evelyn Remaley, acting assistant secretary of commerce for communications and information and acting National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) Administrator, said minority-aimed broadband initiatives have done great work in bringing together providers and companies with minority-serving institutions.

Correction: A previous version of this story said the FCC will vote by mid-May on policies related to the Emergency Broadband Benefit program. In actuality, the agency is voting on policies for the new Emergency Connectivity Fund from Biden’s new American Rescue Plan. 

Carson Block from Carson Block Consulting and Stephanie Stenberg of the Internet2 Community Anchor program told a virtual conference hosted by the American Library Association on Tuesday that it’s time libraries take a closer look at how they are getting broadband and if they are getting the speeds they are paying for. If not, they said they should re-negotiate.

Block and Stenberg shared details about the “Towards Gigabit Libraries” (TGL) toolkit, a free, self-service guide for rural and tribal libraries to better understand and improve their broadband. The new toolkit helps libraries prepare for E-Rate internet subsidy requests to aid their budget cycles.

It also has tips about communicating effectively between library and tech people since there is a gap in knowledge between those two groups. The TGL is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and Gigabit Libraries and Beyond (GLG) to improve the toolkit and expand throughout the United States. In addition to focusing on rural and tribal libraries, now urban libraries will be included for support.

During the event, a live poll showed all participating attendees said they “very infrequently” had technical IT support available in their home libraries. Stenberg said this confirmed TGL’s findings that libraries need more tech and IT support, as the majority of respondents in previous surveys gave similar concerning results.

To really emphasize the need for adequate broadband and support at libraries, another question was asked to live attendees about their current level of expertise around procuring and delivering access to broadband as a service in their library, assuming that the majority of attendees worked for libraries. All participants said they possess “no experience” trying to get broadband in the library.

Common issues that are to blame include libraries with insufficient bandwidth, data wiring or poorly set-up networks. Old and obsolete equipment also contributed to bad Wi-Fi coverage.

Laura Cole, director at the BiblioTech public library, shared how a successful pilot program with Southwest Independent School District made a goal to provide digital access to 100 students. To date, 62 students had broadband installed with the remaining still being worked on. The project was done to act as a proof-of-concept for digital connection expansion in Bexar County, Texas, where broadband access rates are low. Though the program’s success has caused it to be extended through December 31, 2021, Cole said she recognizes that there needs to be a more permanent solution to close the digital divide in all areas where people lack internet.

At the Brooklyn Public Library in New York City, Selvon Smith, president of information technology and chief information officer at the library, said that collaborative programs with the New York Public Library, Queens Public Library, and the New York City Department of Education were able to provide thousands of free hotspot devices for the entire school year to under-connected people. The organizations created a “Bookmobile Wi-Fi” program that was comprised of three vans and one truck stocked with laptops and outfitted with Wi-Fi antennas.

And it’s not just libraries that benefitted from the $7 billion provided through the American Rescue Plan. Rajesh Adusumilli, assistant superintendent for information services at Arlington County public schools (APS), said his organization worked to address student connectivity needs throughout the pandemic. The rollout of the 1-2-3 Connect Me pilot program was a core part along with maintaining Comcast’s Internet Essentials Program sponsorship and continuing to provide devices and wireless access hotspots at Arlington’s public schools.

This pilot program was financed by the Virginia governor’s Fasttrack Broadband Funding program, and is an extension of broadband services off of the APS and county-owned fiber network.

It uses technology on the Citizens Broadband Radio Service spectrum band, which has allowed private networks solely meant for students. It allows for students to connect to the APS network from home so they can continue distance learning instruction and access APS resources. It also can save money as it does not require the county to build additional fiber to create the extension.

Now, all Arlington Public Schools are set up with wireless access, with 99.2 percent of all APS students having participated successfully in synchronous learning activities.

“I don’t know any school or library that feels they have enough funding,” Joe Polasek said at the “Connecting Michigan Communities: Digital Education in Michigan” event, hosted by Connected Nation Michigan.

The E-Rate program is based on free and reduced lunch eligibility reported by schools and can support schools’ recurring or one-time service costs for internet. In some cases, the program can cover up to 90 percent of an internet service bill, something Polasek would like to see more schools and libraries take advantage of in his state.

There have been recent legislative proposals to extend the E-Rate to cover internet subsidies to the home.

If a school or library qualifies for E-Rate funding, it can then use money that would have gone toward paying the internet bill for other needs like technology or education improvements.

While a growing number of schools are eligible in the program, the need to push libraries to qualify is even greater. Three years ago, 50 percent of Michigan libraries were participating in the E-Rate program, said Polasek. Libraries need to be aware of the benefits and help available to them in accessing much-needed funds and filing proper paperwork to qualify.

To date, Polasek said efforts to raise awareness of E-Rate funding have grown steadily, which has culminated in nearly 65 percent of libraries now receiving E-Rate funding.

Polasek’s role as a state coordinator is to facilitate the application process for prospective schools and libraries. He made it clear that he cannot actually file the paperwork on behalf of the applicant, but he is there to answer any questions and educate.

The verification process for E-Rate can be tricky to handle, he said. Confirming that the student count and discount rate are accurate is important because money is on the line.

Editor’s Note: A previous version of this story said that the E-Rate program was recently expanded to cover subsidies to the home. The story has been corrected to say that various legislative proposals have been introduced to achieve that. As it is, the E-Rate program is based on free and reduced lunch eligibility reported by schools and can support schools’ recurring or one-time service costs for the internet.

David Weinberger, senior researcher at Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society, said students suffer from staring at a screen all day – “Zoom fatigue” — and need to be stimulated with higher-quality education. He said he hopes and expects distanced learning technology will improve the digital experience, which is an endeavor that requires more resources.

And students want high-quality remote learning, said panelist Charles Severance, clinical professor of information at the University of Michigan School of Information. That means that if demand is not met by educational institutions, then virtual learning may not be here to stay – potentially hobbling the system once again in the event the nation would need to reinstitute at-home learning.

But lawmakers and parents are seemingly waiting for the opportunity to have students return to in-person classes, a call that assumes students are better educated in the physical setting.

Educators on the ground, however, know that some students do better with – and in fact prefer – virtual learning than they do with in-person learning. In an interview with Broadband Breakfast on Monday, William Jeffery, the assistant principal at Columbia High School in the Columbia-Brazoria Independent School District in Texas, said students should therefore have a choice between virtual and in-person learning.

That hybrid model was also recommended on Wednesday’s live event.

Lori Williams, president and CEO of the National Council for State Authorization Reciprocity Agreements, said different populations have different needs, and said many large institutions will continue instructing online, while others may stick with hybrid models, and some will try to go back to the traditional in-person method of teaching.

Regardless of what the institution chooses, she said students should be able to choose their own experience. The decision is no easier to make on a higher-ed level than it is for K-12 public schools.

Severance said that over just one weekend, the University of Michigan went from having about less than 1 percent of its credit offerings being online to the entire school’s offerings moving online, as it made the decision to shut down last March of 2020.

He said the school has historically been opposed to online education, and that though many of its faculty struggled with being forced to go digital, Severance saw it as a seriously challenging, yet huge opportunity to adapt and still give a quality educational experience.

But that shift requires money. As the country has dramatically shifted its education systems to virtual learning platforms, money and resources are needed to support the unforeseen demand. That’s why some say programs like the $3.2 billion Emergency Broadband Benefit program funded by Congress in December 2020 will see strong demand and will likely see all its funds spent.

Author and e-learning professional Badrul Khan, who was a panelist in the event, said education should be cost-effective and accessible, wherever it is happening.

Our Broadband Breakfast Live Online events take place every Wednesday at 12 Noon ET. You can watch the March 24, 2021, event on this page. You can also PARTICIPATE in the current Broadband Breakfast Live Online event. REGISTER HERE.

Wednesday, March 24, 2021, 12 Noon ET — “The State of Online Higher Education”

• It was one year ago this month that our nation shut down because of the coronavirus. Broadband Breakfast Live Online launched on March 13, 2020, as a way to connect people about the solutions that broadband could provide to the trials raised by the COVID-19 pandemic. Our first episode was on “Broadband, the Coronavirus and Education,” and in this session, we’ll check in with experts on the state of online higher education – one year in.

Panelists:

• Dr. Badrul Khan, Author and E-Learning & Instructional Design Professional
• Dr. Charles Severance, Clinical Professor of Information, University of Michigan School of Information
• Dr. Lori Williams, President and CEO of the National Council for State Authorization Reciprocity Agreements (NC-SARA)
• Dr. David Weinberger, Writer and Affiliate of Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society
• Drew Clark (moderator), Editor and Publisher, Broadband Breakfast

Panelist Resources

• E-Learning Remote Learning Framework and Models, Badrul Khan
• Everyday Chaos, Media, Excerpts and Videos Featuring Dr. David Weinberger
• See “Broadband Poised to Change the Fabric of Higher Education, Say Panelists at The Cable Show,” Broadband Breakfast, June 8, 2012
• See “Broadband Breakfast Live Online: Coronavirus and Education,” Broadband Breakfast, March 16, 2020
• See “With the Coronavirus Reaching Pandemic Proportions, Teachers Across the U.S. Are Frantically Converting to Online Courses,” Broadband Breakfast, March 12, 2020

WATCH HERE, or on YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.

As with all Broadband Breakfast Live Online events, the FREE webcasts will take place at 12 Noon ET on Wednesday.

SUBSCRIBE to the Broadband Breakfast YouTube channel. That way, you will be notified when events go live. Watch on YouTube, Twitter and Facebook. 

See a complete list of upcoming and past Broadband Breakfast Live Online events.

A panel, hosted by the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank and discussing the “new future of work” on Monday, said those who are in an “elite” category are getting ahead on education because they benefit from good quality internet. Poorer households, who don’t have good quality internet – either due to where they live or how much it costs – are getting left behind, they said.

The pandemic has forced schools to close, stressing broadband access at home for remote learning. While lawmakers and parents want kids back in school, some educators say students should be able to choose between in-person and virtual learning.

Salman Khan, founder and CEO of Khan Academy, a nonprofit education organization, said he believes the country has done a good job in the last 10 years in closing the digital divide. However, the pandemic has virtually undone that progress as many schools remain shuttered. Internet access is inequitable and has turned into an economics issue, not just an educational problem, he noted.

Khan said people need opportunities and incentives to learn at their own pace and to not be sorted wrongfully in the education system.

Not everyone is given those opportunities. Astrid Tuminez, president of the Utah Valley University, was born in a farming village in the Philippine province of Iloilo, and grew up in a hut with bamboo walls.

Her desire for education led her to the United States where she later became educated at Harvard and MIT and joined the corporate ranks of Microsoft before becoming UVU’s first female President.

Tuminez said UVU is an open admission, dual-mission institution, which means it has a community college embedded in a teaching university. She said that UVU’s faculty also needs to have the right training and resources to help close the digital divide, and has since seen 40 percent of the faculty certified to teach online.

With dual-mission purposed institutions like UVU, more support can be given to more students than if it were an elite institution. She said 37 percent of the school’s enrollment is first generation college students. “We don’t care about your past and we see you as you are and we want to support you,” said Tuminez.

Learning opportunities need to be abundant and accessible, she said. Khan said people must be given as much support as possible to learn and stay current on their skills to be competitive.

Peter Blair, who is on the faculty in the graduate school of education at Harvard University, where he co-directs the Project on Workforce, said “similar to Astrid,” he too grew up in a small island nation, the Bahamas, and was able to be educated at private universities and has since taught at public universities.

Blair said lifelong learning is important, and that “we need to meet folks where they are,” meaning educational institutions need to support and see through to the success of students.

Blair said that fewer than 40 percent of workers have college degrees, yet more than two-thirds of new jobs created in America require college degrees—a confusing finding as it is not obvious in many cases why a college degree is required for jobs that shouldn’t require a degree.

In an interview with Broadband Breakfast on Monday, the assistant principal at Columbia High School in the Columbia-Brazoria Independent School District in Texas said some of his students don’t do well with virtual learning, while others thrive. Others prefer in-person learning.

Virtual education has allowed us to “differentiate” students’ needs between online and in-person school, he said.

That’s why Jeffery is recommending school boards keep diverse education methods on the table for students to choose what would suite them best. If students perform well at home and enjoy it, they ought to have the means to continue learning from home. Likewise, students who do best interacting with others in-person should be able to continue in that manner, he said.

Parents and lawmakers have been pushing for in-person learning despite the on-going pandemic; others are wondering if the push for digital learning is worth it versus reopening schools for traditional in-person learning.

Screenshot of William Jeffrey by Derek Shumway

Jeffery spoke about how his use of technology, specifically Flipboard, helped transform his students’ learning experience. Flipboard is a news and magazine app that aggregates content and allows users to curate specific content to their liking, for digital learning in the classroom.

Creating a new educator tool with Flipboard, Jeffery focused on four main goals: critical thinking, creativity, communication, and collaboration, he said.

Jeffery wanted to use flipboard to bring education to the forefront for other teachers to learn and benefit their students wherever they were. “Whether you have a laptop or a pencil, you still have to put that knowledge in your brain,” he said.

The expansion is in the $7.6-billion Emergency Connectivity Fund, which is part of the $1.98-trillion stimulus bill.

“For nearly a year now, millions of students and library patrons without home broadband access have been struggling to participate in online learning,” SHLB executive director John Windhausen Jr. said in a statement.

“The longer we wait to bridge this connectivity gap, the further these students and patrons fall behind on their education. The passage of today’s reconciliation bill is a welcome move to help learners of all ages.

“Furthermore, the legislation embodies SHLB’s ‘to and through’ approach by allowing schools and libraries to extend their broadband services to the surrounding communities. We applaud the House’s quick action and encourage the Senate to follow suit and greenlight the bill as soon as possible.”

Windhausen Jr.’s statement comes after SHLB led a coalition of education advocates in January 2021 in petitioning the FCC for emergency E-rate funding. The petition stated an estimated 15 to 16 million students lacked home internet access and, if granted emergency funding, schools and libraries could connect them.

Keith Krueger, CEO of the Consortium for School Networking, said the FCC should extend the program to allow students to learn remotely as no student should fall behind academically because they lack home broadband.

One avenue for growing this workforce is apprenticeships facilitated by broadband providers, often in conjunction with universities or trade organizations, such as the Wireless Infrastructure Association.

These apprenticeships are designed to provide people with paid opportunities to gain on-the-job experience, while also giving them a chance to work with mentors who can provide them with valuable insight into how the industry functions.

Carriers have many on-site technicians and other employees who have to complete essential work outside their home to keep the rest of the country at home. The pandemic has put more emphasis on the need of these workers and these apprenticeship programs can replenish any lost labor.

But what’s also a concern is whether the U.S. has enough of a workforce skilled enough to be able to rise to the challenges of 5G networks, which include new technologies and more connectivity points to manage.

John Ladd is an administrator in the Office of Apprenticeship with the Department of Labor. On a panel at the Connect X All Access Policy Summit 2021, Ladd stated that despite record levels of unemployment due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, more than 200,000 registered apprentices entered the workforce in 2020, in addition to a total of 2 million apprentices over the last five years.

“Apprenticeship works,” Ladd said. “And it works for everybody.”

Ladd claimed that apprenticeships in the wireless sector not only result in better wages and opportunities for employment for those doing the work, but funding apprenticeships also represents a strong return on investment for both broadband providers and the public. He said that recent presidential administrations recognized this and funded apprenticeship efforts in the past.

“We’re really fortunate that we’ve seen support for apprenticeship,” Ladd added.

Government support for apprenticeship programs

According to Ladd, the Obama Administration represented a renaissance for apprenticeships, and since then the support has continued.

“We’ve had [support] in the [Trump] Administration, and growing support as well in [the Biden] Administration.” He pointed to Biden’s affirmation of apprenticeships via a recent executive order. Though the order repealed former President Trump’s Industry Recognized Apprenticeship Program, it reinstated the National Advisory Committee on Apprenticeships.

This move was made in part to get rid of what the Biden Administration viewed as “redundancies” and “inferior systems,” but it was also designed to ensure a diversification of apprenticeship programs and uplift disadvantaged communities.

“Apprenticeship provides help to diversify the workforce and reach new talent populations,” Ladd argued that this move would not only bring more women and people of color into the workforce, but it would also provide opportunities for veterans transitioning out of the military. He called these apprenticeships “pipelines of talent,” and just one of the many tools that the Biden Administration had in its toolbox to help the economy get back on track.

This was largely due to the massive state and local purchases amid the pandemic. Texas’ public school districts spent roughly $1 billion during the last year on computers and wireless internet hotspots. A large portion of the cost was paid for with one-time federal stimulus funds.

“It’s pretty remarkable when we’ve talked about the digital divide for the better part of 20 years in the country, and we will have effectively bridged it with computing devices at the scale of Texas,” said Morath.

The concern now is how the public schools will have the means to maintain and replace computers and equipment as it ages and experiences wear-and-tear by students. While the school districts spent $1 billion last year, it may not be able to spend $1 billion every year going forward.

Leaders in education and advocates are in the early stages of mapping out long-term plans that can pay for students’ technology needs. Lawmakers have a short period of time to propose new and continued funding for computer purchases. Many school districts aim to refresh their computes every four or five years as the devices age and software changes.

“There are definitely some conversations that are being had here at the district level on what does that begin to look like,” said Scott Gilhousen, Houston school district chief technology information officer, whose district bought nearly 110,000 computers this last year.

Before the federal aid was a significant source of paying for the computers and hot spots, school districts depended on their own revenues. This reduced the funds available for other instruction needs, as well as bond revenues and nonprofit support.

Texas education leaders could tap those sources again. But without new pledges of additional state or federal support, it will cost significantly more.

Speaking about the future of funding to keep the digital divide closed, Gilhousen said: “I’m very optimistic. When you start to look at the importance of digital connection across the nation, everybody understands that now.”

Datacasting refers to the practice of using radiofrequency spectrum currently occupied by broadcast television, instead of using typical broadband connections over fiber or other wireless transmissions, to replicate internet features.

These services only allow for downloading homework, tests, and learning material that their instructors send to them, but they may be unable to submit homework or tests via the same process.

Mark Newman, executive director of Indiana Public Broadcasting Stations, was a panelist at America’s Public Television Stations 2021 Public Media Summit Monday. He acknowledged that though datacasting is not a new technology, it has played a pivotal role in bridging the digital divide during the pandemic.

“Our motivation was simple: to do our part to make sure kids didn’t fall behind in school,” Newman said.

He outlined how, at the Indiana Department of Education’s request, IPBS was able to deploy a rapid response program designed to allow TV stations to deploy scheduled content that linked students to learning resources published by PBS Learning Media. This was an attempt to replicate the classroom learning experience, providing students lesson plans with goals and objectives.

Newman explained that data casting techniques would be able to be extended beyond the pandemic and assist families without or with limited broadband access. He said this vision is what contributed to IPBS being awarded $6.7 million in CARES Act funding. Newman added that datacasting could be an affordable component to closing the digital divide, as it only costs a fraction of what broadband services cost.

Datacasting for download, limited broadband for upload

Madeleine Noland is also a proponent of data casting. Noland is the president of the Advanced Television Systems Committee, and though she recognizes the promise in datacasting, she also pointed out that it falls short of broadband in some crucial areas.

Noland noted that at its best, datacasting is paired with limited broadband capabilities. In this scenario, though a family might not have high speed internet access, they would ideally have at least a limited ability to upload a student’s homework.

With no access to broadband at home, students would still be able to receive their classwork, but would likely be required to travel to a secondary location with access to broadband to upload their assignments.

Noland unpacked what she described as a likely situation where multiple students in the same household can download large quantities of data via their set-top-box or other hardware, and then upload their assignments at a library with broadband access.

Even though this is less ideal than the convenience of high-speed internet from within the home, this cost-effective method of schooling children is far better than simply losing a year of school.

“My hope is that the leadership that [Mark Newman] is showing is strong—contagious,” Noland said. “I hope that we will find lots of others who are getting on the bandwagon and coming up with their own new ways to use the system and bring value to their communities.”

Rebecca Kelly Slaughter said the FTC is taking an all-hands-on-deck approach to hold market players responsible over privacy protection and consumer data.

Speaking on Feb. 10, she noted that it’s been almost a year since Americans stopped going to work in person due to the pandemic, and that some 27 million Americans have been diagnosed with COVID-19. This has caused an explosion in the educational tech industry, as parents and children are relying on the internet more than ever.

She said the FTC has published guidance for parents on how best they can protect their children’s privacy as they navigate online schooling for their children. The federal Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act is under close review to see how it will adapt to the new digital norm.

“Nearly a quarter of kids lack internet access,” she said, alluding to the fact COPPA applies to the online educational space.

It’s not just companies providing educational tech services to kids that should concern parents, she said, but the advertisers who obtain data on children.

The data of our children is especially valuable, and advertisers like to form brand loyalty early, said Amy Cyphert, a law professor at the West Virginia University College of Law. Much of this technology is supplied to students for free. But again, we need to be careful of the true cost of free technology being provided to kids, said Cyphert.

But it’s not just ed tech that should concern families. A rise in health and telehealth apps in particular are under scrutiny for data protection issues, and Slaughter said the FTC should pursue more cases similar to the FLO health app with which it agreed to a settlement. FLO was a popular women’s fertility-tracking app that was accused of misleading consumers about the disclosure of their health data.

Slaughter’s young son ran up to her side and interrupted the meeting, proudly showing his important message he had spelled out on a letter board. The message caused giggles and laughs from everyone on the Zoom call.

Slaughter also touched on racial equity. Prioritizing consumer protection law is key to fighting systemic racism, as she warned of digital services targeting vulnerable communities with unwanted content.

Slaughter also cautioned against allowing lower income communities to pay for services with their data when they could not otherwise afford the services. To bolster her concerns, she cited an op-ed published in The New York Times by Kate Crawford called “Artificial Intelligence’s White Guy Problem,” which claims that “Sexism, racism and other forms of discrimination are being built into the machine-learning algorithms that underlie the technology behind many “intelligent” systems that shape how we are categorized and advertised to.”